The process was started by Ben and Tim Godfrey, the grandsons of Sir Nigel Gresley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Eastern Railway who also designed the world famous Flying Scotsman and world speed record holder Mallard

Frames for Britain’s newest steam locomotive have been profiled at Tata Steel in Scunthorpe

And the grandsons of world famous loco designer Sir Nigel Gresley were there as the epic construction project got under way.

The steel frames for new Gresley class P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales, which will be Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive, were profiled at the Tata works.

The process was started by Ben and Tim Godfrey, grandsons of Sir Nigel Gresley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Eastern Railway who also designed the world famous Flying Scotsman and world speed record holder Mallard.

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The profiling was done at Tata Steel’s 3-Bay facility using a purpose-built Messer Omnimat profiling machine, which use gas burners to cut the steel into the desired shape and is capable of processing up to 40,000 tonnes a year of profiled plate for delivery to customers around the world.

The 21 ton steel frames for the new steam locomotive - which will eventually weigh around 170 tons - is being built by the same team behind famous new steam locomotive No. 60163 Tornado, completed in 2008 and paid for by public subscription. The new locomotive is Gresley P2 Class No. 2007 Prince of Wales and the profiling of the frames marks the start of the construction. This comes hot on the heels of TV presenter James May making the first component – the smokebox dart - in Darlington Locomotive Works on Thursday 20th February 2014 and the rolling of the frame plates at Tata Steel’s Scunthorpe Plate Mill on 23rd April 2014.

The class P2 2-8-2 ‘Mikado’ locomotives were the most powerful passenger steam locomotives to operate in the UK, designed by Sir Nigel Gresley to haul 600 ton trains on the arduous Edinburgh to Aberdeen route. Sadly the design was never fully developed and they were rebuilt in 1943/44 and scrapped by 1961. The project is building the 7th member of this class over seven years at an estimated cost of £5m and will demonstrate how the design can be fully realised through use of modern computer design and modelling techniques, enabling it to deliver its full potential hauling passenger trains at high speed across today’s national network.

Public interest in seeing a new Gresley class P2 steam locomotive become a reality sooner rather than later is high, with over 300 members of The Founders Club each having given £1,000 and 350 people already signed up to the ‘P2 for the price of a pint of beer per week’ (£10 per month) covenant scheme since its launch two months ago. This means that the project has already received pledges of over £750,000 of the £5m needed over the next seven years.

Former Bottesford man Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, the registered charity behind the project, said: “The main frames of a steam locomotive are the parts upon which everything else is built, and so the importance of this milestone to the Trust cannot be overstated. With the first part fabricated, courtesy of James May, we are thrilled to be able to have reached the stage of profiling the substantial pieces of metal that make up the locomotive’s frames at Tata Steel – and being able to declare that the project to build No. 2007 Prince of Wales is now well underway.

“Having already built one steam locomotive from the drawings with Tornado, the levels of support and interest that have been generated towards No. 2007

Prince of Wales have been nothing short of sensational. With backing from HRH Prince of Wales, high profile celebrities such as James May, significant pledges made by members of The Founders Club and large numbers of monthly covenantors coming on board, we can demonstrate just how much progress we

have made towards resurrecting this amazing design of steam locomotive from the annals of history.”

Jon Bolton, Tata Steel Long Products Director, said: “We are delighted to be associated with this project. It is a great example of modern steelmaking and processing being used to bring an iconic piece of British rail history to life for the benefit of future generations.

“Scunthorpe steel went into making Tornado so it is only right it should be used in No. 2007 Prince of Wales, too.”